A Martyr

A Martyr (1885)
Two Martyrs: Memorial Services Held by Working People Over the Murder of Lieske and Riel (1885)
The Riel Rebellion (1885)

Written for The Alarm [Chicago, October 31, 1885]

Not very far off, in a little town on the other side of the lakes, in Canada, alone in a cell of the doomed to death, a man is awaiting the moment to be crucified, to die on the scaffold under the bloody hands of a hangman. The name of this man? Louis Riel. His crime? He called out his brethren, the Canadian half-breeds, to arms; he has unfurled the sacred standard of human freedom and independence.

The tyranny of the British officials and corporations is felt by the half-breed hunters in the northwestern territory of Canada more than by any other Canadian subjects of the old wife, Victoria. Since 1871 they petitioned the government of the Dominion again and again to stop the arbitrary and despotic acts of its officials, who in common with the avaricious corporations robbed them out of their possessions and treated them like a set of outlaws. But all petitioning, exhorting and begging was in vain. The stupid government ignored the insignificant huntsmen entirely.

In 1876, 1877 and 1878 the half-breeds had shown a determination to take the matter into their own hands and to help themselves. Then the land surveyors ceased to exile them from the lands they cleared and cultivated. All was quiet again, but only for a short time. The government soon sent new officials, so called forest inspectors. The half-breeds were forbidden to hew woods in the forests, unless they could present title deeds, which they were unable to obtain. A little later the Hudson Bay monopoly came, and, backed by the bribed authorities, it swallowed up or drove away the small dealers, and cut down the prices of furs, the only product the half-breeds bring to market.

Finally their patience was broken. They arose; they revolted. At the head of the rebellion appeared Louis Riel, the son of those northern deserts, where every man having a carabine on his shoulder or a knife in his girth is an equal of all under the large, impartial heaven. With his little troops of hardened, intrepid partisans Riel conducted the campaign for months. The English government at first bawled out that a single military company would be sufficient to crush that small handful of rebels. But, soon undeceived, it sent whole regiments against them. There were bloody encounters, murderous butcheries. One against hundred, the half-breed, insurgents, strengthened by the justice of their cause, fought like lions. Many a hero fell on the field of battle. Riel multiplied himself, inflaming his combatants, always first in the fire, always indefatigable. But one day, overpowered by the numbers of the enemy and having fought until his strength deserted him, he was vanquished.

The exultant victors shouted “hurrah!” Riel was captured. They pounced upon, enchained and imprisoned him. Idiots (judges) assembled a short time afterwards, and before them, fervid and stately, though ruined physically and mentally, appeared Louis Riel. They declared him guilty, guilty of having fought to be free himself and to free his people, and condemned him to death. The sentence was sent over to England. There a few bigots met and confirmed it. It is on the next 11th of November that Riel is to be hanged. In two weeks!

Thus, twenty-six years ago, in the same America of ours, another insurgent who, too, had taken in his hands and made his own the cause of the oppressed, John Brown, was captured with a smoking gun in his fingers, savagely tried and – wounded, hardly able because of the loss of blood to stand upright, grand, sublime, happy to give his life for his black brethren – strangled on the scaffold!

Louis Riel is an American citizen. Did, or will our dastard, sycophantic government try for a moment to wrest the grand unfortunate victim from his executioners? Does the grand, free nation of the United States demonstrate by any thing her sympathy with the fallen champion of liberty.

Denis

Two Martyrs: Memorial Services Held by Working People Over the Murder of Lieske and Riel

The Alarm, Chicago, November 28, 1885

The American Group of the International held a well attended mass meeting at 54 West Lake street Sunday afternoon to pay homage to the martyred heroes to human liberty, Julius Lieske and Louis Riel

Comrade Davidson served as chairman, and Mrs. [Lizzie] Swank as secretary.

[… Speeches by August Spies and Comrade Henry]

Samuel Fielden said: “Washington, etc. were not considered such men as Riel or Lieske. The difference between patriotism and treason is success. Riel is a traitor, because he failed. Cyrus Field is condemned all over the country for his monument to [John] André. If André had succeeded these monuments would be all over this country today. We Anarchists recognize that a man can be a patriot and not succeed, but others do not. All innovation is rebellion. The inventor is such. So in social life. Whoever discovers an idea is a rebel. There is at work in every person a spirit of rebellion. In the round and change of the universe there is a cause for every effect; men do not act particularly from choice, but from surroundings. John Brown was the greatest character in American history. There is need of such rebels today.”

Comrades Taylor, Parsons and others followed with remarks showing that in the murder of Lieske and Riel notice had been served on the elements of discontent throughout the world that they must not act to bring relief. In the fate of these martyrs we could all read our own doom at the hands of those who exploit and enslave their fellow men.

The following resolution was offered and unanimously adopted:

Be it:

Resolved, By this meeting of Anarchists that we express our solidarity with Comrade Julius A. Lieske, who was murdered last Tuesday in Kossel; and Louis Riel, who was strangled last Monday at Regina. Progress and liberty move upon the corpses of heroes, slain by “social order.” Down with the strumpet!

At the conclusion a liberal contribution was made to the “agitation fund”, to which every member of the group had signified their intention to contribute at least 25 cents per week. Preparations are being made for an active propaganda throughout the city the coming winter.

The Riel Rebellion

The Alarm, Chicago, April 18, 1885

The rebellion in the northwest headed by Riel has its inception in the effort of Canadian land-sharks to deprive these people of the Saskatchewan valley of their homes, since they braved the rigors of the climate and the privations of frontier life to settle these lands and open them to cultivation. They are fighting the land pirates who seek to deprive them of their years of hard toil. They are struggling to retain their homes of which the statute laws and chicanery of modern capitalism seeks to dispossess them. May their trusted rifles and steady aim make the robbers bite the dust.